TREASURE

Zed’rath kept his hands away from his weapons as he approached the old lady and apologized for his rude companions. He explained that they would really appreciate any insight and help she could offer them. Something about the Drow’s comportment softened her up and she told him that this was known as Castle Serastis, a lair for Yuan-Ti, serpents, and other humanoids. She told them that the reason she was giving them such a slim chance of success because in the last few months there had been an increase in the number of serpents inhabiting the castle. She warned that through the upper story she had heard horrible noises from some unknown creature, but through the front doors she had seen a large undead beastie as well. The rogue asked if she could tell them anything about the inside of the castle, but she admitted that those who went inside were usually too weak to work the fields and they never came back out. She admitted that she might be a foolish old lady, but she said that if the group ever needed a place to rest, they would shelter them.

When Zed returned and explained things to the group, they all felt that going through the front door would be suicide, so the Drow threw a grappling hook up to the upper window and stealthily climbed up so scout the way. Gromel borrowed Vistra’s climbing kit and went next. He did great until he climbed over the ledge and stood up… and then made enough noise to alert everyone inside the castle. Vistra came next, followed by Kuri (who borrowed Zed’s athletics knowledge from his head), and then Petril tied the rope around his waist and allowed the Warforged to pull him up. By that time, Zed could tell that monsters were coming and used guild sign to warn the group as sail snakes and a hellhound bounded up the tower to attack them. With some effort, they killed the poison spewing flying serpents and continued down the stairs to delve further into the tower.

On the next landing down, Zed scouts down the stairs to check out the magical portal. As he sneaks down, it occurred to him the growl that he’d heard while Grom was climbing into the tower was not made by any of the creatures that they’d just killed. Just as he realized that, he heard a deep intake of breath behind him and as he turned he was blasted by lightning from a young bronze dragon, and a female Yuan-Ti, Issiel. The Drow tried parlaying with the lizard-woman, but she wouldn’t tell them anything about the Prism Lily. The dragon, Snapwing, takes on the majority of the party while the Yuan-ti faced off with the rogue. As the Drow got the upper hand, the Yaun-ti turned to run and was shot in the back of the head. Vistra considered jumping onto the back of the dragon, but the healers talked her out of it… and she almost lost her axe as she failed her attack. The Death Gate was grateful that she hadn’t followed Zed’s encouragement of “no guts, no glory.” As it was getting close to death, Snapwing began ripping apart the meat shields. She revenges herself and deals the final blow, and she keeps punching it even when it’s dead. The group dissected the dragon for body parts, while Zed searched Issiel, finding a mask and two keys.

As they were fighting the dragon, Vistra began considering all that they could do with a “dead dragon.”

Vistra’s blow was so epic that time slowed down so everyone could appreciate it!

Even though the dragon was dead, Vistra’s blows were already in motion and she kept beating a “dead dragon.”

Upon further inspection Zed realized that the lower landing is surrounded by 7 portals. He used guild sign to let the group know that there was no else down below.

Instead of going on further, the group decided to return to the fields to rest. The old lady agreed to hide them.

The next morning, when they returned to the Tower of the Way, they found that their rope was missing, so they used another to climb back up. The bodies were missing but the tower was otherwise empty. The group decided to try the first portal they came to, holding hands and going through together. As they walked through the portal together, they actually ran into it because the magic was locked. Kuri decided to use magic to check out the other portals and found that only 5 out of the 7 were attuned to other places. She also found that the gems around the portals had to be pushed in a particular order to activate them. As they continued down the landing they found doors at the bottom, in what looks like a Briefing Chamber. The rogue sneaks down and using one of the keys to open the left of the double doors. The Bedroom is very luxurious, with a four-poster bed and a strange nest made up of mud and bones. Zed then opens the right double doors and finds a room filled with cartographers tools, with a marble basin under the table and a mirror bolted to the wall. Grom searched wardrobe, while the rest of the group searched the Map Room. Kuri finds random maps that she rolls up and hands to the Scout. He doesn’t recognize much except for a map of the Underdark city of Pedestal. Kuri recognizes the map of Kingsholm.

Zed sneaks up to the double door on the opposite side of the room and heard shifting on the other side of the door. He silently opened the door and found two lizard-man guards standing just inside. Beyond them, he could see a pool beyond with what looked like piles of diamonds around it. The room was filled with light and then Zed realized that they weren’t diamonds, but tons of Prism Lillies.

TREASURE

Zed’rath asked The Hermit if any of his alchemical potions could be used offensively, but he said that his mixtures were all of a natural sort to help people. Gromel asked about the Yuan-Ti; the Hermit explained that some time ago he’d sent a group of hirelings wearing red shirts to check out the Yuan-Ti kingdom, but they had never returned. He had better expectations for this group. With that little bit of information the Hermit kicked them out onto the trails as Shaika flared up again.

The group traveled for about half a day (north and east), the plain was rather barren and it was hard to imagine any life having ever lived there. As they began the climb, Zed noticed some human tracks and some that he couldn’t recognize, which he guessed must be Yuan-Ti. As they made their way up, the Drow and Petril were struggling with the higher altitude, but both did their best to hide it. Up on the mesa, they found more barren land and a strange tall spire rising just off center. While the exhausted ones caught their breath, Kuri scanned ahead and found the area around the spire teeming with life. They jumped on their Obsidian Steeds and rode towards the center of the mesa… where Zed had them all pull up on their steeds just in time as the ground dropped off into a sheer cliff. In the center of the mesa, the land suddenly dropped into a huge jungle covered valley. The group decided to ride south around the valley, looking for a trail or some way down into the bowl. As they rode around they realized that a river ran along the southwestern part of the bowl. Beyond that, the area had been flooded and there were humanoid shapes working in the flooded fields. The spire rose 100’ above them. They noticed a trail on the north side of the bowl, and carefully made their way north, without kicking up a a dust trail. As night drew on, they decided to make camp. It wasn’t the most defensible, but at the top of the trail they had the best view of everything around them.

The night passed without incident and the next morning they headed off down the trail. At the beginning of the jungle, the Drow took to the trees to try to get a better view of the area around the trails. At one point, the Rogue almost fell out of the trees because he almost used a large snake as a vine… While the group was following the trail, Vistra stepped off the trail and suddenly started sinking in quicksand. Grom was able to save her using his spear to pull her out. Now that they recognized the quicksand, they were able to avoid future pools.

Zed playing Tarzan through the jungle

After hours of travelling, they finally came to the swampy civilized land. Zed was surprised that there were no sentries. The southside of the cliff face had been carved into an elaborate entrance, but there seemed to be no easy way to get to in without being seen. The slaves seemed so badly beaten down, and without hope. The group decided to force their way through the jungle to the western wall. Once the jungle ended, the group was stuck unsure what to do. Zed dared to talk to one of the slaves, but he was warned that the group should turn back while they still had their freedom. He also warned that there were too many guards and that they already knew that the group was there. The scout returned and reported to the group. They decided that there was no further use for stealth, so they made their way along, keeping the cliff wall at their backs, towards the front entrance, bypassing hovels along the way.

As they drew closer to the entrance, a Naga slithered out of one of the buildings and shot them all with lightning. “Lithe” hissed that she had new playthings as the group started their attacks. While the Naga fought off the group, a giant viper climbed out of the well in the center of the courtyard, showing that the slaves had to even fight for water. The viper cornered the drow, cutting him off from the rest who were ganging up on the Naga, Lithe. Once the Naga was dead, the group rushed to Zed’s rescue. The viper died with it’s fangs stuck in the drow. As the group was prying the dead snake off, an old woman exited one of the hovels and warned the group rather harshly that she’d seen adventurers like them before, especially one like the warforged who had been torn to pieces by the Yuan-Ti. Kuri and Vistra took offense and told the old lady that if she was so doubtful, then she should just stay out of their way.

TREASURE

After Petril made Adokus Chandler’s shot go wild, striking a nearby building and setting it afire, Adokus then kicked the annoying Gnome off the walls and then disappeared inside the building. The Death Gate then attacked the Shadow Thieves guarding the gate. As the fight went on, the fire spread and the townspeople added to the chaos. Zed’rath used the chaos of the crowd to hide amongst the people and to sneak up on the Shadow Thieves to attack, while Gromel and Vistra tag teamed soldiers, and Kuri stabbed deep into the minds of their enemies to bring them down. Once most of the guards were dead, Tha’Ahel and Petril worked together to raise the portcullis. Once they heard the coming of the Town Guard, they scooted out of the gate, which Tha’ahel shut behind them, destroyed the mechanism, and then used his Dhampiric powers to turn to mist and escape the city walls.

The group headed northeast out of Riatavin into the Shilmista forest. There, they could see a small campfire hidden amongst the trees. Zed’ snuck up on it and found that it was the hirelings who were hired to transport Shaika. As the rest of the group was signaled to enter the firelight, the hirelings turned over the body and returned to the city. The group camped there for the night and set out travelling towards the Plains of Xian on the morrow.

On the 2nd night, Zed noticed that the area around them was deadly quiet, no animal noises. When he woke up Kuri, he asked her to cast out a mental web and she couldn’t sense anything except animals huddled in their dens in fear.

At the end of the 3rd day, Tha’ahel took his leave of the group as the group finished crossing the Snowflake Mountains. He was returning to Erlkazar to continue the war against the vampires. On the 4th day, the animal noises returned and the group realized that the Vampiric raids against the area must have taken their toll on the wildlife and they began to relax a little.

During the night of the 5th day of travel, during Grom’s watch, Shaika suddenly sat up and screamed “Sardis, NO!” and burst into flames as her eyes rolled back into her head and she passed back out. At that point, her skin took on a molten quality and the molten part shifted around under her fur. Suddenly, a fiery form of Shaika detached itself from her body, and stood up. Then a shifter form detached itself and stepped away from her body. Another copy of each form stepped out of her body and the Warlord had only a second to warn his companions before they attacked. Both the Genasi and Shifter forms did major fire damage to the group as they fought the incarnations of their friend. Each time one was killed, it exploded in a huge burst of fire… and the fiery Shaikas were then reincarnated as panthers that trod out of the fire to attack the group some more. The Death Gate took major damage, pulling out all of the stops to defeat them (Grom had so many fires around him that his butt cheeks were melting and becoming saggy). The grasslands and one of their tents were burnt to a crisp. Once the threat had been eliminated, the group flopped down, exhausted to rest some more. Zed’ asked Kuri if she knew who Sardis was? She explained that Sardis was the Genasi personality inside Shaka… but as she probed, the Shardmind let them know that the Genasi personality was no longer present in the battle in Shaika’s psyche. The danger was growing more pressing, so the merc’s decided to push through the day.

The non-constructs were so exhausted when the group camped for the 6th night, they fell right asleep, especially Petril who had slept most of the day in the saddle. The next morning they were still tired, but they pushed on, for their companion’s sake, to reach the plateau of Xian, rising over 1000 feet in the air. Kuri knew the way to the Shadow House and led the group to it through rarely used trails. The group asked Kuri how to find the Hermit? She informed them that he would make himself known, but Petril used Ghost Sound to announce their presence. A long, white-haired old man came hobbling out, complaining that this was why he’d moved away from the city. Once things were explained to him, he told them to bring Shaika inside, while complaining about mages messing with things they weren’t supposed to. Inside were many alchemical things brewing in beakers, bottles, and jars. The Hermit explained that Tha’ahel had helped him get this house back from the Night Barony 75 years ago… and before that the plateau had been raised by the Spellplague.

After quaffing a strong drink, and then a different one, he entered a trance and went on an “interesting journey.” When he returned from his mental explorations, he explained that the book that Shaika had been reading was trying to dominate her, but that wasn’t the greater threat. The mage that slapped her and the Genasi together hadn’t considered the consequences. The fusion had created a greater malevolent entity inside of them that was made up of the baser parts of their subconsciouses. The fusion was also unstable and the malevolent being absorbed the Genasi’s life force to grow stronger and would probably soon beat down Shaika as well. The Hermit mentioned that he could send them inside to fight the abomination. He told them that there were natural ways that he could get them inside with “certain ingredients”. Before the Spellplague most of Xian had been swampy, ruled by the serpent kingdoms of the Yuan-Ti. There was a rare flower that the Yuan-Ti kept in their gardens called a Prism Lily. Just like a prism breaks light apart, this flower breaks apart the boundaries between realms. He informed them that there was an old miner’s path one and a half days north of the Shadow House that the group could use to hunt down the Yuan-Ti tribes up on the plateau. The group then prepared to start a crazy journey, with Grom a little worried about any psychic journey that they’d have to take.

It was early afternoon as the group felt the pressure of needing to save Tha’Ahel. Since the Shadow Thieves were no longer being aggressive towards them, they threw caution to the wind and hurried to Ghalmrinnar, the town hall in the hopes of stopping this stupid execution. Since Vistra had been there before, she led the way. Once inside, they stopped a self-absorbed official and learned that Draga Underfoe’s office was upstairs and 3rd door on the left. Inside a receptionist told the group that Draga was too busy to be seen…. and then Zed’rath noticed that the receptionist was writing a note upside down so that the Drow could read it: “Return to the inn and Draga will be there to visit you shortly.” Gromel was just leaning forward to try and intimidate the receptionist, when Zed began pushing him towards the door. The rest of the group followed, but they were equally confused. As soon as the protesting group is in the hallway, he motioned to his head, hoping that Kuri would catch on. She opened her mind to him and once she understood, she passed the message on to the others.

They returned to the inn where Zed and Vistra grabbed some food and drink while Grom went to sharpen his spear and Kuri went to check on Shaika. She found that Shaika was slowly losing the battle against the other two forces. She was just rejoining the “flesh-bags” when Nerisstina Graveltoes announced that they had a guest waiting in the “special room” where they could talk freely. The three of them nonchalantly made their way to this back room and found Draga, a rather attractive female dwarf, waiting for them. The psionicist called to the Warforged and Draga primped at her reflection in her armor as he joined the group. She started by informing the group that Tha’Ahel was being kept in the dungeons of the Town Hall. She suggested that the best time to rescue him would be after 10 bells. The Dwarven Council-woman suggested that they could either go through the sewers, which is nasty, or at street level, but then they’d have to deal with the Shadow Thieves. She warned them that the Old Town Watch was innocent and shouldn’t be harmed, but the Shadow Thieves and most of the rest of the council were in Adokus Chandler’s pocket. Grom asked if she could give them any guidance. She offers to draw the Death Gaters a map of the sewers and reprimands the Warlord when he asks if it’s reliable? She also marked on the map where Adokus had hidden a cache of magical items… anything she can do to hit him in the pockets. She then leaves, promising to send someone to help us move our friend safely out of the city for when we have to make our escape.

In the interim time, Zed and Gromel studied the map, while Vistra prepared her stuff, and Kuri meditated. At 9 bells, a couple of plain men showed up and they started setting up a crate around the unconscious Shifter. Kuri scanned their minds to find out that they were sent by Draga. They crated up the kitty and loaded her into a wagon full of other crates. The group then headed back upstairs to shove pillows under blankets and Kuri suggested the sewer entrance behind the inn. Zed scoped it out, and found that the entrance was about a half block away, between some tall buildings. The group snuck down into the ally, and used the cover of a cloud of darkness to quietly make it down into the darkness. The rogue was just about to ask the others to let his Darkvision kick in when the Warlord drew his sunblade, blinding him.

The Scout took point, staying just outside the light of the sword. He followed the map leading them through the labyrinth while Kuri used her telepathy to keep silent contact between the members of the whole group. As they crawled through the sewers, the Drow heard something large skittering across a perpendicular tunnel ahead. He warned the rest of the group to douse the light and to be quiet. He felt a strange tingling sensation as Kuri dug stealth techniques out of his memories to use. Luckily, the group had had enough time to prepare, so the large creatures luckily passed them by without noticing them. A little further on Gromel heard something skittering behind them and he whipped around, igniting his sunblade only to find a small rat wiggling its nose at him.

Zed leds then further from the Dwarven sections into the human sections just below the grate leading into the Town Hall dungeons. While he waited for the group to catch up, since they were walking slowly to stay quiet, he climbed the ladder and checked out the inside of the Dungeon. He found only one guard in the room, but since he was a Town Guard, and they’d agreed not to kill them, he blunted one of his quarrels and using a very precise shot, knocked out the guard. Just as he was descending the ladder to meet the others, he heard another guard coming down the stairs. He blunted another bolt and took down that one as well.

Vistra joined him on the ladder and they discovered that the grate was mortared in place, so the Dwarf took out some tools and quickly loosened the grating, just as the rest of the group arrived. Quietly, the whole group made their wait up and into the dungeon. While the rogue tied up the unconscious guards, Kuri located Tha’Ahel in a sealed room. Grom wanted to rip the door off its hinges, but Zed reminded him that they were trying to be quiet and picked the lock instead. Tha’Ahel was grateful to be rescued, but the Death Gate felt sheepish to admit that Petril had his gear, and they didn’t know where Petril had gone in an effort to find the Avenger. While the Dhampire was getting outfitted with leftover weapons and armor they’d looted, Zed curiously checked out another locked and trapped door, which seemed to describe the cache of loot that Draga had described to them. With little effort, the lock was disarmed and picked. Inside they found two chests with magical boots and a magical helm in them. The group took them, and then headed back down into the sewers to escape the city.

Knowing that the map wouldn’t help them any further, Zed let the Dwarf take the lead, trusting that her innate abilities would lead them truer. With only a few wrong turns that led to collapsed tunnels that she couldn’t have foreseen, the group found themselves at the farthest north grate, which let out next to the north wall, just west of the hideout for the Order of Erathis. The gate out of the city was a little to the northwest of their location, but as they were climbing out of the sewers, alarms started claxoning throughout the city.

The group threw caution to the wind, preferring haste, hoping to capitalize on the chaos still reining in the city. They could see a group of guards posted at the city gate. As Kuri scanned the minds of the guards to find where the mechanism was for the portcullis, she felt a very chaotic mind that she couldn’t read. She also got the impression that the guards were waiting for them… which was odd. As the group neared the gate, the Drow dropped a cloud of darkness around the guards in front of the gate, while Kuri veered to the side tower to handle the gate mechanism. At that same moment, Adokus stepped out onto the parapet of the guard tower and pulled out a wand pointing it at the Death Gate group. Their bodies already in motion, the group knew that they had no way of avoiding such a blast. Suddenly, Petril popped out of invisibility, screaming “NO!” and knocked Adokus’s wand arm aside. The fireball went off, immolating a building behind the mercenary group. Then, all hell broke loose.

TREASURE

In Riatavin, the Death Gate group was making their way to the safe house of the Special Order of Erathis to try and save Tha’Ahel, when they were ambushed by the Shadow Thieves. As they were fighting the knife and javelin dancers, they could hear a conflict inside the safe house, which began to die out before the gas had dissipated and before they had beaten their attackers.

Vistra is able to slam home with her craghammer every time, but she can’t punch them worth spit, thus her stance is a failure

As the smoke began to fade a little, Kuri ran towards the safe house, hoping that the stun gas couldn’t affect one who couldn’t breathe. She was able to make it into the smoke-filled building and found the windows smashed in and doors knocked off hinges, though there was no sign of bloodshed. Kuri psionically told Vistra that she was going to check upstairs. There was a creaking noise upstairs, but it was oddly repeating in the same spot, though she couldn’t sense her friend upstairs.

Kuri had no idea what the repeated sound upstairs was, so she imagined Tha’Ahel upstairs skipping rope.

As she topped the stairs, she found a dead knife fighter twitching with Tha-Ahel’s pickaxe in his back (something he’d never leave behind). It seemed like the gas had overwhelmed him before he could finish the job. The knife fighter was wearing a strange device over his nose and mouth (a gas mask?). The Psion sent a psychic message to Gromel that the Avenger had been taken. When the warforge shared this info with the group Petril broke down sobbing in the street, stating that this was all his fault. Zed’rath didn’t disagree with him as he raced into the house to see if he could help track the Shadow Thieves. He followed the trail out back of the house, but then lost their trail on the cobblestones. The Rogue asked the Shardmind, since she had lived in this town for a while, if she knew rumors of the rogue’s hideouts? She ripped off the shirt and showed them the tattoo that all Shadow Thieves bore of a dark diamond shape with a dagger shape cleared out in the middle. Kuri wanted to find a Shadow Thief so that she could get info from his mind so they sent out the “scout” to find one.

Zed climbed up onto the roof and began looking for a target. He found one hidden behind a chimney and snuck up behind him and carefully knocked him out. While he was laying him down, he noticed a Shadow Thief posting an official notice in the Market Square. The Drow decided to return the unconscious man to the safe house first. He made his way back across the rooftops, missing his last jump and just barely catching himself on the windowsill. The Warforged helped pull them inside. They laid the unconscious thief on the floor while Zed went to rest in the corner.

The Psion knelt above him and sought to enter his mind. While in his mind Kuri saw a flash from his perspective as he watched the Shadow Thieves shadowing the Death Gate group to the Safe House. She continued digging to try and find out where Tha’Ahel was being held, but he didn’t know. She did find a memory from the tavern where a scout reported that Death Gate and Tha’Ahel had returned to town. After hearing this, Adokus Chandler planned to post Execution Notices for Tha’Ahel so that he could take out an important rival, something he had been planning for a while, it seemed. As she left his mind, she realized that Adokus had used his hatred of Death Gate to help him with his long-term goals. Zed suggested that they needed information and Petril wanted to do something to remedy the situation, so he said that he’d go get some information. Before the isanity had begun this day, they’d wanted to resupply, so while waiting for the gnome, they decided to do just that.

On the way to the General Store, the Shadow Thieves were still watching, but Zed could tell that they no longer bore them ill will; their true goals were met. The store they went to was Wilhelm run by Udoian Homeforger. He was excited and asked if they had heard that the killer around town had finally been caught and was being held at the Council Chambers? The Drow mentioned that he couldn’t have been the killer around town since they had killed the lead Vampire, Kelnozz Vrasl and had his head and arms. Zed asked the dwarf who was the most trustworthy of the counselors so that they might spare an innocent man? He decided that the least bureaucratic bureaucrat was Draga Underfoe; she was the most able to sniff out horse dung. She could be found at Ghalmrinnar. After shopping at Wilhelm, they also went to pick up Alchemical items at Horvan Serpenthelm’s (Half-Elf) after having used so many of their previous stock on traps for the vampires. On their way around town they finally got a chance to fully read the Execution Notice and found that Tha’Ahel was set to be beheaded the next morning at dawn. They didn’t have a lot of time!

TREASURE

After Leaving Shaika’s unconscious body at the Lodge of Coins for treatment, the Death Gate group returned to Yoxinn’s burden for food and much needed rest. Gromel went up to his room for an oil bath and found the letter from his goddess. Tha’Ahel left the rest of the mercenary group in the common room eating, promising to send Kuri in the morning. After a good meal and some flirtation from Nerisstina Graveltoes, the group went to bed.

The next morning, Zed’rath was the first one up and headed downstairs for some food. Nerisstina met him on the stairs and told him that there was a …“being” waiting for them in the common room. As he stepped off the stairs he saw a strange crystaline creature sitting at one of the tables. The rogue approached the being and asked if it was Kuri? The Shardmind gave him a strange look and said that she was Kuri, also a part of the Special Order of Erathis. Zed had seen a lot of things in his life, but this was something totally new! Right from the start, the two of them didn’t get along and there was a lot of tension in the air when the others came down for breakfast. Without waiting for her own food, Vistra could tell that the Drow was just picking at his plate, so she helped him finish it. Grom suggested that while the “fleshbags” were eating, he could take Kuri over to see their unconscious friend. Vistra quickly wolfed down more and food, chugged her ale, and offered to go with them, while Zed offered to stay and try to keep Petril out of trouble.

Vistra wolfs down her food and Zed’s

The three of them headed back to the Lodge of Coins, but along they way they all noticed that the Shadow Thieves were closely watching the group. With her telepathic powers, Kuri could tell that the Thieves harbored open resentment towards the Death Gate, so she warned her companions. At the Temple of Waukeen, Grom was rather short with Therora Trickfoot, but nonetheless the priestess led them to see their still unconscious friend. Kuri skimed Shaika’s psyche and was surprised to sense the Shifter, but 3 other consciences as well; One was of an elemental nature (obviously whatever gave the shifter her fire powers), one was purely arcane, almost like an artificial construct (which she guessed was the presence of the books power), and the final presence was just a bundle of pure melevolence and anger (that of another unknown being). This evil conscience suddenly recognized her presence and forced her out of Shaika’s mind. When the Psion had caught her breath, she explained to the others that Shaika and the elemental presence within her were together fighting the other beings in her mind. She tried to ask the other two questions about Shaika’s past, but the Warforged and the Fighter admitted that none of group knew much about each other except for the Drow. The group took Kuri with them and returned to the inn to find Zed’ trying to discover how long Petril had been part of the Secret Order, but the Gnome’s babbling had left his eyes glazed.

The group decided that they should get some supplies before heading out to find the Hermit, the only one who could heal Shaika. As they were leaving, the rogue suddenly remembered that they had never collected the second half of their reward from Adokus Chandler which they could use on supplies, so the group left Petril guarding Shaika and headed over to the Rooks Treasure to collect. They were shown into the back room and found Master Chandler behind his usual desk. He faked that he was happy to see them, but Kuri could tell that he bore everyone ill will. He asked the group questions about their “friend” Tha’Ahel, but they didn’t know much, so he threatened to send guards to hunt him down. The whole group acted uninterested knowing that the Avenger knew his way around the town. Master Chandler then called in a messenger to get their payment. While they were making idle chitchat, they heard the jangle of weapons and armor and knew that they’d been betrayed. He accused the Mercenaries of endangering the safety of the city and told the guards to arrest them, or to kill them if they resisted. As the Insane Noble turned to leave the room, Zed’ was hot on his heels. Whereas Master Chandler had seemed like a rather simple man, he was able to deftly avoid all of the rogue’s attacks, even outdistancing the fleet-footed Drow. As he disappeared down a side hallway, he told the Rogue to stay alive because “he had long range plans for their group.” Zed returned to help his companions who were dancing with the skilled knife fighters. Vistra pimp slapped the last one, asking him “where our money was” but he was too dead to answer. There were no clues or anything left in the nondescript room and the rear hallway led to a side way out of the tavern.

_ The knife fighters kept trying to attack Vistra, but their dancing attacks were ineffective._

While the group was searching the tavern for clues, Petril ran in huffing and puffing, annoyed that he’d been left behind. Grom was concerned as to who was protecting Shaika, but the Cleric reassued him that Mistress Graveltoes was hiding her in a “safe room.” Petril then told them that the whole town was in chaos, looking for Tha’Ahel. Kuri suggested that he was probably hiding out at the safehouse, so we should try to make our way there (too bad we were in the southwest corner of town and the safehouse was in the northeast corner). Zed scrounged around the taven and put together disguises for the group so they could move freely around the town. Working together, they tried to remain as unobtrusive as they could, but they were just too strange a party to remain unnoticed by the Shadow Thieves. As the group neared hideout, Kuri realized that they were being followed on the rooftops. Before she could warn them, Petril raced forward towards the hideout, giving it away to the enemy, who dropped down in front of him, blocking the way, throwing alchemical bombs into the building. Before the bombs had even left their hands, Kuri shouted a psychic warning to Tha’Ahel, then the nine hells broke loose…

TREASURE

The Death Gate found themselves in Orgoth’s Tower, facing Zed’rath’s older brother, Kelnozz. “Ah, little brother it has been too long." “But not long enough,” Zed retorted. Kelnozz blamed his younger brother for his current state. After his disgrace at Zed’s hands, their mother had him tortured and his grandmother had him turned into a vampire so that he could be more useful. Kelnozz then threatened to kill Zed and raise him as a zombie.

While the brothers were dialoguing, Gromel threw a spear, which bit deeply into the Vampire Lord’s shoulder, but it healed as he pulled it out. He then dominated Zed and started attacking the rest of the group for a short while. The tide of battle began to turn against him, so he turned into mist and fled the battle. Out on the roof, he ran to surround himself with his vampire buddies. At the same time an Elven Avenger came running up the twisting stairs and stepped in front of the breech in the wall. He told us to run, to save our lives, but Shaika stepped forward and immolated a huge group of the vampiric minions with what she thought would be her last shot. The rest of us were emboldened by this and continued the battle… except for Petril and Grom who heeded the strangers warning. As the gnome headed down the stairs, he shared a look with the Avenger, which Vistra noticed. The Avenger dashed forward and slammed his warpick “straight to the heart” in Kelnozz’s chest, and then killed some more minions as he pulled it out. A very impressive attack. The dwarf charged into the midst of battle, but was then made into a snack for the Vampire Lord. The Avenger muttered about Vistra’s stupidity, but she told him to kiss her calves. A powerful blow from Zed knocked his brother prone and the Avenger smashed his head, finishing his existence. The Dwarf heard Kelnozz whisper that he “was finally free, but now things would only get worse for Zed….” The rest of the minions were quickly finished and Grom and Petril made it to the bottom of the tower before they noticed that we weren’t with them.

After the battle, the Avenger wondered aloud “if we were insane or really good at what we do?” The rogue mused that “there was such a fine line between the two.” As the Drow approached the Avenger, he noticed that he wore the trappings in support of 2 gods, the Raven Queen and Erathis (Civilization). The rogue also noticed that he had red eyes and fangs, a Dhampire. The group thanked the stranger for his timely assistance and then asked his name. Reluctantly he told them that his name was Tha’Ahel, which Zed recognized meant “True Sadness/Sorrow” in Elven. Vistra wanted to know how he and our Cleric knew each other. He admitted that he and Petril were both part of a small order which had been charged with dealing with the vampire problem in Riatavin. He admitted that their order was aware of our charge, and shared a knowing look with Zed.

After burning the bodies and finally joining up with their companions, the group left Orgoth’s Tower, returning to Riatavin. As they were travelling, Tha’ahel explained that they’d learned that Zed’rath was the whole reason that the vampires were attacking Riatavin. Originally, Kelnozz had been sent West, to Harkenvold to find his brother, but when he saw the mess there, Lolth forseeing the destruction of that city, sent him to Erlkazar instead. There, Kelnozz allied himself with the Night Barony and started attacking Riatavin, in the hopes of drawing his brother to him for revenge… which worked. As the group asked more questions of him, Tha’ahel explained that he and Petril worked for the the Special Order of Erathis based out of Impiltur. The Special Order usually fought demons in Impiltur, but the group that Tha’ahel and Petril were part of were sent to Riatavin to fight the Night Barony. He also explained that he had been the mist that we passed through on the way to Orgoth’s Tower (silently watching and taking his measure of us)and that he had been the one making the bodies in the tower “disappear”, fully destroying them so that there was no chance of them being turned.

While they’d been travelling on horseback, Shaika had been sucked into studying the Tome of Alcaister, mostly ignoring the conversations around her. The magic in the book seemed to call to her against all reason. While reading, suddenly, a deep thrumming resounded around her and she was enveloped in flames. The catgirl tried to scream in agony, but no sound would come out. Grom noticed the wizard stiffen in pain as the flames surrounded her, but then just as quickly, her body went limp and she fell from her horse, snuffing out the flames. The group rounded and ran to her side. Shaika’s eyes were still open in terror but there was nothing “physically” wrong with her. Petril did everything he could to heal her, but she was hale and whole. Secretly, Grom searched for her spirit in the Shadowfell, but it had not left her body yet. The best that the group could guess was that the arcane knowledge had been too much for her mind to handle and she was now in a coma. They tied Shaika to her horse, making her as comfortable as possible and then returned to Riatavin with all haste. Along the way, the gnome rode up next to the Avenger and quietly suggested that they should take the wizard to the Shadow House to see the Hermit. Overhearing this, Zed joined the group and asked what they knew. They explained that the Hermit had been a head in their Order for years and years, but that he’d suddenly left one day and put himself into “self-exile.” He was a master of the mind and the spiritual plane so if anyone could help Shaika it would be him. Petril admitted that no one knew where to find him, though many guessed he lived somewhere in the Giant’s Run Mountains. Being his usual secretive self, Tha’ahel mentioned that he did know of one person who might be able to find the Hermit… Kuri

Exhausted from over 48 hours with no sleep, the group returned to the inn while Tha’ahel went to locate the mysterious Kuri. In his room, Grom found a scroll wrapped in a black band, which was obviously from the Raven Queen. Since he was alone, he felt safe to open and read it. It was written by the hand of Vancrull the Bleak, the Sorrowsworn whom he had met in the cemetary in Harkenvold, who had brought Grom into the Raven Watch. The scroll described that many Warforged now served the Raven Queen as he did, but recently some of them had become corrupted. The scroll told Grom that he was expected to travel to Westgate to stop the corrupted Warforged and to find out how they had become corrupted.

TREASURE

Deep underground, beneath Orgoth’s Tower, they continued to move further underground, moving deeper under the lake. The pathway continued to slope further down as well. The Death Gate came upon a child’s sarcophagus, but it was empty and in the next room down the hallway the rogue could clearly hear creepy children’s voices singing. Zed’rath peeked into the room and found 4 child skeletons (about 7-8 years old in life before they died) happily/eerily playing jacks. Without even looking up, they invited the adventurers to come play with them and bounced a rubber ball towards the Drow. Vistra recognized them as Bonewretch Skeletons, ankle-biters. Gromel couldn’t stand to see these undead abominations and moved in to attack before Zed could try to talk to them. As the first one was bloodied it screamed in realistic, child-like pain, causing Shaika’s heart to break, ears drooping more each time we damaged the undead children. The ground around us was unholy, but the Bonewretches did not rise again as we sent them to their rest with the Raven Queen. During the battle, Vistra stated that this was exactly why she felt that people shouldn’t procreate… which confused Grom because Warforged are usually created by a group of wizards and a magic circle. One of the ankle-biters tried to chew on Vistra’s calves, but she just flexed and it couldn’t bite down.

Once the children were dead, the group continued on and the hall ended in a broom closet. Zed searched all over, but couldn’t find anything. Shaika, on the other hand, sensed magic coming through the back wall. Grom commanded us to keep searching, so the dwarf studied the stonework and quickly recognized the switch which caused the stones to fold back.

Through the portal, the group found themselves in Orgoth’s laboratory. It was dark and full of dust. There were bookshelves surrounding the room and lab tables spread all over. On three of the walls were stretched 3 fiend skins. Something tugged at Shaika’s memory and she remembered that Orgoth was supposed to have been summoning 3 fiends, but they supposedly killed him…. So something more powerful than the fiends had killed them. On a stand at the back of the room rested the fabled Tome of Alcaister. In the far corners stood grime covered glass cylinders. The SW one seemed to have been the center of a blast radius, which had damaged that side of the room, leaving the floor covered in necrotic spots of ground, which unlike the defiled ground, halved all healing. From the cylinder in that corner seemed a darkness so black that it was purple. The group spread out around the room, searching.

Suddenly, in their minds they all heard, “So, have new flies come to play in the spider’s web?” Petril recognized that the voice was coming from the SW corner. In his mind Zed asked who the voice belonged to, it answered that it was Orgoth. Shaika wondered how since his body had been torn apart? Grom raised his glowing great sword, and they could see a brain floating in some liquid in the glass cylinder, with a dark miasma swirling around it. With a wet slapping sound, the 3 skins flopped off the walls and then stood up to attack (Forsaken Shells). While they fought with the walking skins, swarms of Crawling Claws come out of the bookshelves to attack the group as well. They were swarmed by the claws and and slapped by the Forsaken Shells. One of them wrapped around Grom and he got his first set of skin.

While fighting, Zed did his best to distract Orgoth by asking him how he survived. The brain explained that “the fiends had kept my brain alive to torture me, but they’d grown prideful and I’d finally been able to defeat them and hung their skins on the walls as trophies.” It didn’t do much to distract it, unfortunately. The Forsaken Shells worked to dominate party members and used them to attack each other (not to mention patting the Warlord continually on the butt). Once Zed was finally free of the immobilizing claws, he turned his Death Whisper on the Brain. He did massive damage to the glass jar surrounding him, blinding it and dropping its defenses for the others to damage better. Orgoth kept pushing Grom back as he charged it, or dominating everyone, finally the attacks broke through the glass and as the air hit the brain, it shriveled up screaming, “NOO”

As they searched the room, the Wizard rushed to the book to check it out. It was the magical tome that she thought it was. The rest of them searched the room, but couldn’t find much other than arcane books on necromancy and alchemical materials so that Shaika could make them more alchemical stuff for later. Behind the other cylinder was found a box full of gold. As they were wandering around, Vistra told them that it was after sunset, so they assumed that the Vampires must be out hunting by now. It was decided that Shaika should use the alchemical items that they’d found to make alchemical fires and acids, which the rogue would then use with all of the holy water that they’d bought, to be turned into traps for the 20 coffins upstairs. They spent the next 2.5 hours creating traps and alchemical items to trap the coffins with. Once that was finished, they trudged back up through the tunnels and back to Orgoth’s Tower. On the 2nd and 3rd floors they trapped the coffins, doubling up the items on all of them. As they crept up to the top floor, Zed took point to scout ahead. The room on the top floor was covered in a thick mist, which the Dwarf recognized, but before she could say anything, the mist coalesced into the form of a vampire lord. Upon closer inspection, Zed was horrified to recognize his older brother Kelnozz, whose life he had spared years ago. The drow reached up and fingered the 3 scarred notches in his right ear. "_Ah, little brother it has been too long_, the voice of his older brother bought back so many memories as the rest of the group looked from their comrade to the undead Drow.

TREASURE

In Orgoth’s Tower, Zed’rath kept searching to understand the weird breeze, it seemed that it was blowing in a South Easterly direction. They all set to searching the room. Shaika still sensed the magic from the putrid lake, while Vistra tapped on the walls. Gromel guarded our backs as Zed started searching the SE walls… and suddenly comes upon a secret stone which opens up a passageway in the wall, which leads down in the underground. A very strong feeling of “wrongness” wafts up from below. Since they haven’t finished searching the rest of the manor yet, they all agreed to close off the passageway for now and go to search the tower in the North.

In the North hallway they found an unsuspecting guard and dropped him silently in the hall and then entered the tower. As they traveled, Zed got the feeling that the oppressive nature of the place will affect people the longer they stay here. In the tower, it looked like the stairs to the 3rd floor had collapsed onto the 2nd floor. The Rogue heard sounds from up above, so he silently climbed the rubble to the next floor while Grom talked Petril into showing him the sketches he was doing when they were first entering the manor, in the hopes of improving Zed’s chances at stealth. Zed practcally flew up the stairs…

On the 2nd floor, Zed dropped the random guard with a quick shot from Death Whisper, then searched the floor while the rest searched down below. The rest of the Death Gate then joined him. The Drow decided to set up the climbing gear so they could search out the 3rd and maybe the 4th floor while everyone else searched out the rest of the 2nd floor.

Grom quickly opened the door out of the tower and suddenly a guard hollered, “we’ve got intruders!” As Zed is scaling the wall, he heard it and started cursing because the rest of the group had forgotten how to be stealthy without him… and Petril was so excited to be in battle that he actually screamed his agreement to fight, practically vibrating. The rogue hoped that their noise would cover the noise of his ascension, wondering if they didn’t deserve it (the atmosphere of the tower was beginning to affect him). The rest of the group froze up the bandits and quickly blew them away. One of the other bandits tried to hit Vistra with a thrown axe, but it bounces off her “calves of steel.”

Finally Zed made his way to the 3rd floor and found a rusted door. Even with all of the rust, he’s able to proceed silently. At the end of a small hallway, he came upon a very new, ornate door with a very complex lock, well outside his skill level. As the rogue studied the lock, he realized that the lock was set on a timer… and he came to the conclusion that it probably coincided with dusk just from what he knew about Vampires. He found nothing up on the rooftop of the tower and quickly made his way back down to join his companions. His time alone had left him jumpier than usual.

“Team Alpha” checks out the balcony on the 2nd floor and found nothing. On the East side, they found doors that have newer handles. The room the bandits came from is a dormitory, made even creepier by the red paned windows which cast the room into a blood red glow.

Soon the group is reunited and as Zed is telling them about the lock that he found upstairs, he realized that the door behind them has a matching lock. Grom tried to force the door open with his spear and even by battering it down with his shoulder, but the door resisted his attempts. Grom asked Shaika to try to burn it, but it resisted her magic. He then asked Vistra to check the masonry, but it’s perfectly fitted. Grom suggests that we see if there are windows on the Eastern side of the complex to see into the rooms. The group can’t easily reach the tiny windows, but Shaika’s fire lizard Familiar can. He crept along the side of the tower and looked into the 2nd and 3rd floor room windows and saw rooms full of many coffins. On the 4th floor, there is a small room with a single, ornate coffin in it. It would make sense that this is where they base their raids from, but the vampires don’t seem to go into the rest of the manor so the group feels safe… for now. They wonder about destroying the Vampires, but Vistra reminds them that Vampires are light sleepers. It seems that Adokus Chandler knew precisely what he was doing by sending them here, hoping that both of his “common enemies” would destroy each other.

As they head back down to the secret passageway, they realized that the dead body in the tower was gone, with no signs of it being drug away. The same is true for all of the bandits that they’d killed. There is blood on the floor, but nothing else, very odd! The secret passageway was steep but tbey can tell that it’s taking them down and out towards the lake where Shaika was sensing the magic. The walls are damp and in the distance they can hear the sounds of dripping water, which made the catgirl rather uneasy. It’s very dark in the passage, so the Warlord pulls out his Radiant Sword and lights up the way around them.

To the side they find a small room of interred bodies. To fulfill the Raven Queens commands, the Warforged and the Dwarf smashed the skeletons. Together they all pushed the lid off the sarcophagus, but found his valuables had been rusted. Grom smashed this skeleton as well and then they proceeded further underground (under-lake).

The hall opened up into a huge room with four sarcophagi in the center of the room. Zed could sense a presence in the room, but not sure where exactly, so he warned the group behind him. The rogue somersaulted into the room behind a sarcophagus, and realized that the entity that he was sensing was in the north side of the room, and he heard a strange voice saying, “we should not have come.” As Vistra joined the rogue, they could see better into the murk around them, and they noticed dead bodies, much like an adventuring party. Among the bodies shambled strange undead creatures, Pale Reavers, muttering how “foolish they were to come here, how foolish, and how hungry they are.” They continued to get closer as the rest of the group entered the room. The Death Gate members were slammed hard by all of the status effects that they were hit with, leaving them immobilized, weakened, and even the rogue is dominated. While the rest rip away parts of their essence of life force, the Pale Reaver Lord, who is in the Drow’s head, suddenly transforms into the appearance of his dead love Violet. She blames him for not saving her and then floats away, asking Zed to “come play with her.” That only seemed to piss off the rogue and helped him break free of the domination to attack it. Nonetheless, the undead all seem to attack the wizard, focusing all their attacks on her. With Grom’s final blow, the Pale Reaver Lord faded, stating that they were “finally free….” As the group took a collective breath, a raven’s feather falls from the ceiling, onto Shaika, returning her many lost healing surges. The wizard sensed magic from the sarcophagi. Inside of them, they found Obsidian steeds for each of them, obviously more useful for the living.

We found stairs in the back of the room leading further down. The next room was octagonal, with a huge summoning circle in the center. The great wrongness that we’ve been sensing seems to be coming from the stones in the floor of the room. As Zed led the way into the room, many Tomb Motes rose up from piles around the room to cause trouble. One of the Motes went over to the dead dog chained up against the wall and raised it as a Death Dog, which then joined the attack. As the undead that they kill rise again, Zed suddenly recognizes that the circle represents Defiled Ground which will allow any undead not killed by Radiant Damage to rise again. Shaika and Zed are not happy because they had no radiant attacks, so they switched to using Holy Water. Finally, the annoying monsters fell, rising no more. This dungeon was taking its toll on the group!

The door to the south led to a black hall. From that direction, Zed and Petril hear creapy kid voices singing and laughing.

We all played so late that we were falling asleep at the table and yet we didn’t want to stop!

TREASURE

ITEM

RECIPIENT

LOCATIONFOUND

NOTES

FOOD = Kannarrs, DRINKS = Travis

In Riatavin, Zed’rath Vrasl quickly left the Temple of Sune, fleeing the flirting priest to see what information he could dig up on the street. As he heads past a blind alley he overhears Shadow Thieves talking about their patrols, how there was “something else on the roofs, killing vampires and had only killed a thief when he got too close….”

Shaika meets Yenhand Smilebeard, a dwarven courier in Ghalmrinnar. The Wizard asks him about the history of the vampires in the area. He is reticent to share info, but when they mention Adokus Chandler he refers them to Fruven Gladstone a halfling clerk, while the dwarf continues to hit on what he refers to as the “Ale Master’s Quarterly Centerfold” (Vistra).

They quickly scramble from another uncomfortable situation and meet up with an ink-stained halfling, deeper in the library, who helps them dig up info. In the recent months the raids have increased significantly, spilling over from Erlkazar since they don’t attack their own people. The records don’t have much of interest about the Vampires, but Shaika finds info about Orgoth’s Tower. Orgoth was into necromancy, lost control of some fiends and they tore him apart. Perfect vacation spot! After their research, Shaika offers to let the librarian copy her “Principles in transmutation” book from the wizard who made her the way she is, which he agrees to wholeheartedly, and then they head back to the inn.

The old man helps Grom and Petril look up books on combat and history. Instead of waiting for the old bookseller, Grom just starts looking for what he knows he needs, pulling them off the shelf. Once he’s found plenty of books to read, he heads back to the inn to play chess with the farmers, while he has Petril begin his studies.

Not hearing anything else, Zed heads over to the Temple of Waukeen, Lodge of Coins, run by a female halfling Therora Trickfoot. Along the way, he comes to the conclusion that most of the Shadow Thieves are human, but most of the other citizens are of other races. The priestess knows most of the same things as the others, but one night a patrol was ambushed by vampires, but one survived and was brought to the temple for healing and he was muttering about “darkness incarnate” (Which leads the vampires). She admits that she’s felt necrotic happenings, but she can’t tell him much more, so he heads back to the inn to find the rest of the group.

At late afternoon the group meets up and heads to bed early so that they can get up around midnight to leave town. As they’re getting up, off in the distance they hear a scream off to the West, but decide that it’s too far away for them to get there in time to hope to save the victim. They set off walking and around sunrise the grasslands turn into deciduous trees, the ground starts to slope up into the foothills. As Vistra and Zed glance back over their shoulders they notice a haze/mist. The Drow knows that this can’t be natural so he asks Shaika to check for Arcana. She knows that the phenomenon is arcane, but doesn’t think that it’s dangerous, even though the Rogue is on his guard. The foothills turn into a swamp, which surrounds the road on either side, becoming more putrid, humid, and oppressive.

As they come around a corner, we come upon a decrepit manor, looming in the distance, sitting in the middle of putrid lake. There’s not much of a “tower”, but there is a central turret rising 4 stories. The manor is in a state of ruin and the 2nd story is collapsed, adding to the overall foreboding. The only way to approach the manor is on a stone walkway, the water is too deep and hard to see into. They make it across the walkway without trouble to find the doors intact, but the windows have no panes. From inside, they hear voices complaining about being stuck on this rock while the “elite’s” are away. Zed sneaks around closer and peers silently in the windows and sees guards behind the doors. With hand signals they set up a plan of attack and go at it. Zed drops a sphere of darkness outside the door, then shifts to the window and quickly kills two guards with one shot. Vistra bursts into the room killing another lackey, Shaika blasts the last one with magic. Unfortunately, they make enough noise to draw the attention of others, but they’re able to take the down as well. One of them tries to run, but Death Whisper finishes him.

Moving deeper into the manor everything is in ruins and the wind whistles through the open windows, furniture and tapestries are crumbling everywhere. They search the first room on the SW and find nothing but bedding, then Shaika tricks the rogue into believing that his shoelaces are untied and he notices nothing around him. Across the hallway is a cold kitchen with nothing in it. As we all return to the hall, the women feel a strange breeze where one shouldn’t be… and Shaika senses magic in the middle of the lake. Zed knows that the breeze where breezes aren’t meant to be is a sure sign of a secret passage, but for the life of him he can’t find it. So they move to the North East room, into the empty room. They find a set of collapsed stairs leading up to the 2nd floor, but nothing else.

The central north area leads into a courtyard with a very deep well, with an unsettling smell coming from it. With a makeshift torch dropped into the well, they try to gauge the distance. It falls a long way before hitting the bottom.